Friday, August 19, 2016

Design Patterns for Maps

If you ever want to know the best way to visualize your spatial data then you might want to have a look at UX Patterns for Maps. UX Patterns for Maps provides brief descriptions of a number of visualization techniques which you can use for mapping data.

The site is a great introduction to various design patterns that you can use for visualizing data on maps. So, if you ever need to know when you should use a choropleth, heat map, dasymetric, isochrone or dot map, then UX Patterns for Maps can help you decide. It provides a brief overview of a large number of different mapping techniques. It even provides links to examples of each design pattern being used in an interactive map.

The design patterns can be filtered by visualization 'problems'. These are sorted into: 'compare', 'filter', 'highlight', 'relate' or 'spatialize'. The patterns can also be sorted by tags, such as 'storytelling' and 'juxtaposition'.